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Qasem Soleimani
Qasem Soleimani2 (Persian: قاسم سلیمانی‎, pronounced solejmˈɒːniː; 11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020) was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, from 1998 until his death in 2020, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. In his later years, he was considered the second most powerful person in Iran behind Ayatollah Khamenei,21 as well as being his right-hand man.22 Soleimani initially worked in construction2324 before joining the Revolutionary Guards in 1979 and assembling and leading a company of men when the Iran–Iraq War began in 1980, rising through the ranks to become commander of the 41st Tharallah Division in his 20s.25 He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, and in the late 1990s became commander of the Quds Force.26 Following September 11th, 2001, Iranian diplomats under his direction collaborated with the U.S. to fight the Taliban.2 Soleimani also provided assistance to Hezbollah in Lebanon.2 In 2012, Soleimani helped bolster the government of Bashar al-Assad, a key Iranian ally, during Iran's operations in the Syrian Civil War and helped to plan the Russian military intervention in Syria.27 Soleimani oversaw the Kurdish and Shia militia forces in Iraq, and assisted the Iraqi forces that advanced against ISIL in 2014–2015.2829 Soleimani was one of the first to support Kurdish forces, providing them with arms.3031 Soleimani was popular among many Iranians, with many viewing him as a "selfless hero fighting Iran's enemies",323334 while others deemed him a "murderer".353637 Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union383940 and was designated as a terrorist by the United States.414243 Soleimani was killed in a targeted U.S. drone strike on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad, which was approved by President Donald Trump. The strike was strongly condemned by many, including the Iranian government, and a multi-city funeral was held in Iraq and Iran for the general and other casualties. Hours after Soleimani's burial on 7 January 2020, the Iranian military launched missiles against U.S. bases in Iraq; no American or Iraqi lives were lost in the attack.44 Early life Soleimani was born on 11 March 1957, in the village of Qanat-e Malek, Kerman Province.452325243 After he finished school, he moved to the city of Kerman and worked on a construction site2324 to help repay his father's agricultural debts. In 1975, he began working as a contractor for the Kerman Water Organization.472326 When not at work, he spent his time with weight training in local gyms, or attending the sermons of Hojjat Kamyab, a preacher and a protege of Ali Khamenei, who according to Soleimani spurred him to "revolutionary activities".248 Military Career Soleimani joined the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, which saw the Shah fall and Ayatollah Khomeini take power. Reportedly, his training was minimal, but he advanced rapidly. Early in his career as a guardsman, he was stationed in northwestern Iran, and participated in the suppression of a Kurdish separatist uprising in West Azerbaijan Province.2 On 22 September 1980, when Saddam Hussein launched an invasion of Iran, setting off the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), Soleimani joined the battlefield serving as the leader of a military company, consisting of men from Kerman whom he assembled and trained.49 He quickly earned a reputation for bravery,50 and rose through the ranks because of his role in successful operations to retake the lands Iraq had occupied, and eventually became the commander of the 41st Tharallah Division while still in his 20s, participating in most major operations. He was mostly stationed at the southern front.4951 He was seriously injured in Operation Tariq-ol-Qods. In a 1990 interview, he mentioned Operation Fath-ol-Mobin as "the best" operation he participated in and "very memorable", due to its difficulties yet positive outcome.52 He was also engaged in leading and organizing irregular warfare missions deep inside Iraq by the Ramadan Headquarters.[clarification needed] It was at this point that Soleimani established relations with Kurdish Iraqi leaders and the Shia Badr Organization, both opposed to Iraq's Saddam Hussein.49 On 17 July 1985, Soleimani opposed the IRGC leadership's plan to deploy forces to two islands in western Arvand Rud, on the Shatt al-Arab River.53[why?] After the war, during the 1990s, he was an IRGC commander in Kerman Province.51 In this region, which is relatively close to Afghanistan, Afghan-grown opium travels to Turkey and on to Europe.[citation needed] Soleimani's military experience helped him earn a reputation as a successful fighter against drug trafficking.2 During the 1999 student revolt in Tehran, Soleimani was one of the IRGC officers who signed a letter to President Mohammad Khatami. The letter stated that if Khatami did not crush the student rebellion, the military would and it might also launch a coup against Khatami.254 Command Of Quds Force The exact date of his appointment as commander of the IRGC's Quds Force is not clear, but Ali Alfoneh cites it as between 10 September 1997 and 21 March 1998.26 He was considered one of the possible successors to the post of commander of the IRGC when General Yahya Rahim Safavi left this post in 2007. In 2008, he led a group of Iranian investigators looking into the death of Imad Mughniyah. Soleimani helped arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in March 2008.55 Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, senior U.S. State Department official Ryan Crocker flew to Geneva to meet with Iranian diplomats who were under the direction of Soleimani with the purpose of collaborating to destroy the Taliban.2 This collaboration was instrumental in defining the targets of bombing operations in Afghanistan and in capturing key Al-Qaeda operatives, but abruptly ended in January 2002, when President George W. Bush named Iran as part of the "Axis of evil" in his State of the Union address.2 Soleimani strengthened the relationship between Quds Force and Hezbollah upon his appointment, and supported the latter by sending in operatives to retake southern Lebanon.2 In an interview aired in October 2019, he said he was in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War to oversee the conflict.56 In 2009, The Economist stated on the basis of a leaked report that Christopher R. Hill and General Raymond T. Odierno (America's two most senior officials in Baghdad at the time) met with Soleimani in the office of Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, but withdrew the story after Hill and Odierno denied the occurrence of the meeting.575859 On 24 January 2011, Soleimani was promoted to Major General by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.5160 Khamenei was described as having a close relationship with him, calling Soleimani a "living martyr" and helping him financially.2 Soleimani was described by an ex-CIA operative, responsible for covert operations, as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today" and the principal military strategist and tactician in Iran's effort to combat Western influence and promote the expansion of Shiite and Iranian influence throughout the Middle East.2 In Iraq, as the commander of the Quds Force, he was believed to have strongly influenced the organization of the Iraqi government, notably supporting the election of previous Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.261 Drone Strike 2020 Baghdad Soleimani was killed on 3 January 2020 around 1:00 a.m. local time (22:00 UTC 2 January),120 by U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.121 BBC News, NBC News, DW News, Time, The Guardian and other media outlets have said Soleimani was assassinated or described the killing as an assassination.301229123124 The New York Times compared it to Operation Vengeance in World War II, when American pilots shot down the plane carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.125 Soleimani had just left his plane, which arrived in Iraq from Lebanon or Syria.126 His body was identified using a ring he wore on his finger, with DNA confirmation still pending.127 CNBC reported that the U.S. had been in pursuit of the general for decades.128 Also killed were four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi-Iranian military commander who headed the PMF.129 Iraqi prime minister Mahdi said Soleimani was bringing Iran's response to a letter that Iraq had sent out on behalf of Saudi Arabia in order to ease tensions between the two countries in the region. The prime minister did not reveal the message's exact content.130 Soleimani was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General9 and praised as a martyr by speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani131 and Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the IRGC.132 Soleimani was succeeded by Esmail Ghaani as commander of the Quds Force.133 USA Perspective Trump had expressed a desire to target Soleimani in a 2017 meeting with then National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.134135 On January 13, 2020, five senior current and former Trump Administration officials told NBC News that Trump had authorized the killing of Soleimani in June 2019 on the condition that he had been involved in the killing of any American, a decision backed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.134135 In making the 2020 strike, the Pentagon focused on Soleimani's past actions and on deterring future such actions.136 The strike followed attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad by supporters of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia and the 2019 K-1 Air Base attack.137 Anonymous officials told The New York Times that Trump had initially decided to strike at the Shia militia, but instead chose the most extreme option proposed – killing Soleimani – after seeing television footage of the attack on the embassy.125 The death of an Iraqi-American contractor in a rocket attack in December 2019 was reportedly also used as justification for the strike,134135 contradicting the Trump Administration's claim that Soleimani was targeted because he was plotting "imminent" attacks on Americans and had to be targeted in order to stop these attacks.134135 The U.S. Defense Department said the strike was carried out "at the direction of the President" and asserted that Soleimani had been planning further attacks on American diplomats and military personnel and had approved the attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad in response to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on 29 December 2019, and that the strike was meant to deter future attacks.138139 As part of the administration's changing justification for the strike, a national security adviser asserted that Soleimani had intended further attacks on American diplomats and troops,140 and Mark Esper asserted the general had been expected to mastermind an attack within days.141 Trump stated in a Fox News interview that four embassies, including the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, had been targeted; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was not known where or when the attacks would have taken place.142 The strike was not approved by the U.S. Congress or consented to by the Iraqi government, leading to controversy regarding the legality of killing an Iranian military leader over Iraqi airspace.143 Reaction In an article in the Middle East Institute, former Deputy Defense Secretary for the Middle East Michael Mulroy and retired Navy SEAL Eric Oehlerich state that the targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani was justified and long overdue because he was an enemy combatant who orchestrated a lethal campaign against U.S. military, diplomats and intelligence officers in Iraq. However, they also made the point that the U.S. should of targeted Soleimani's subordinates to disrupt their operations and that covert authorities should've been considered to be able to deny the operation in order to avoid the possibility of an all-out regional war. 144 Funeral On 4 January, a funeral procession for Soleimani was held in Baghdad with thousands of mourners in attendance, waving Iraqi and militia flags9 and chanting "death to America, death to Israel".158 The procession started at the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque in Baghdad. Iraq's prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and leaders of Iran-backed militias attended the funeral procession.159 Soleimani's remains were taken to the holy Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf.160 On 5 January, the remains of the bodies arrived in Ahvaz, and then Mashhad. Tens of thousands of mourners in black clothes attended the funeral procession in the streets with green, white, and red flags – traditionally used by Shiites to symbolize the blood of people killed unjustly and call for avenging their deaths – and beating their chests.161162 Muqtada al-Sadr paid a visit to Soleimani's house to express his condolence to his family.163 On 6 January, the body of Soleimani and other casualties arrived at the Iranian capital Tehran. Huge crowds, reportedly hundreds of thousands or millions, packed the streets. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who had a close relationship with Soleimani, led the traditional Islamic prayer for the dead, weeping at one point in front of the flag-draped coffins.164165 Ali Khamenei mourned openly near the coffin while the general's successor swore revenge. Esmail Ghaani, who was named commander of the Quds Force hours after Soleimani's killing, said: "God the Almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger."166 Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asked if Trump had ever seen "such a sea of humanity".167 He was the first man to be honored with a multi-city funeral in the history of Iran and his funeral procession was said to be the second largest after that of Ayatollah Khomeini.168 On 7 January 2020, a stampede took place at the burial procession for Soleimani in Kerman attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners, killing 56 and injuring 212 more.169170 Revenge On 8 January 2020, the Iranian military responded to Soleimani's death by launching ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq,171172 resulting in no reported casualties.173 Iranian officials174 and some Western media analysts suggested the strike was deliberately designed to avoid causing any casualties to avoid an American response.175176 The Iranian president cautioned the U.S. that Iran will take more retaliatory actions if the U.S. continues to interfere in the region.177